I am making some room/body sprays to sell and have encountered a problem I need help with. After spraying into the air I walk into the mist to smell the fragrance. I have realised that my mouth becomes dry and I get a bitter taste in my mouth which is really unpleasant and lasts all day. After smelling a few of them I now have a sensitive tongue. I think its inevitable if you use a fragrance you are going to smell it and inhale some at the same time.

I have made 50ml (1.7oz) spray bottles using about 10 drops of essential oils and denatured alcohol only. Has anyone had this problem? If so any suggestions how I could fix this would be extremly appeciated. I have not found any information about this anywhere.

Thank you

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I wanted to add that I thought the problem was the alcohol but have since tried out some essential oil spray blends using only water just to compare and the bitter taste is still there. The less oil I use the less bitter but nevertheless is still there. I can't really decrease any longer as it loses strength. Strange!!! ummmmhhhh...not sure how to fix this one. I thought it might be a particular blend so tried some others and they have the same effect on me. I tested them out on my sister and she had the same reaction.

.. sounds like ur having an allergic reaction to certain ingredient! DO NOT continue testing on human subjects, ESPECIALLY unsuspecting family members, who r most likely to share the same said reactions!!

Last edited by googl.plex1; 18th November 2012 at 08:00 PM.

On Sillage:

If someone can smell me at more than an arm's length away, I'm probably wearing too much of whatever I applied; if she can distinctly make out the top notes, then perhaps I left the house a bit too soon..

On icebreaker:

I tend to compliment people on their frags to make short talks rather than anything more meaningful.

Thanks for your reply. I agree the sensitive tongue maybe a reaction this happens after awhile. However the bitter taste is present as soon as I smell it so it definately has a bad taste! Lol my sister has been helping me with the blends and knew what she was getting herself into.

Anything containing denatured alcohol will taste bitter - the denaturing process is intended to have that effect so that you don't want to drink it - a substance called Denatonium benzoate is added to that end (as well as other things that make it somewhat poisonous by ingestion and that vary with country and intended use).

Your water blends are more interesting since many essential oils are used in flavouring as well as perfumery work and need not necessarily taste bitter. So the most likely cause is a particular oil that is in all of your blends and has a very bitter taste.

Final thought: when I'm testing room fragrance I spray it into the air as high as I can reach and wait for the scent to diffuse to me - I don't walk into the mist - partly that's because I don't want my hair and clothes scented with it, but mostly because testing the diffusive abiltiy of the fragrance is very much part of the point, especially when it's intended as a room freshener.

Similarly with a body spray the one place you don't spray it is on your face. If you want to make a facial spray you need to take great care, use very low levels of fragrance and choose the components of the fragrance so that users won't harm themselves with it: really that is work best left to experienced professionals.